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Demolitions

The York Beach Cinema was demolished on Tuesday, October 31st. The theater was originally built in the 1850s to house horses. It was converted to an opera house in the early 1900s. It switched to a silent-movie house in 1928, and has been showing films up to this summer. The theater was demolished so that a hotel can be built on the site.

Crews began knocking down the York Beach Cinema at 8 a.m. Tuesday.

By noon, construction manager Butch Mellette expected the 78-year-old movie theater to be a pile of rubble.

“It shouldn’t take more than four hours to get it down,” said Mellette. “We have to be careful though because of the adjacent building.”

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK — The Continental Theatre here in OKC was finally demolished in October 2006. I’ve taken many pics of the demolition, and would be happy to share some of them with you. My best movie-going memories were in that great building.

It opened in 1965 with “The Greatest Story Every Told.” Director George Steven even came for the opening. It closed in either 1983 or 1984.

EVANSTON, IL — According to this article in the Chicago Tribune, the once grand Evanston Theater will follow many others in greater Chicago area into oblivion:

It debuted with a hit comedy back in the day when a Saturday matinee started with a Porky Pig cartoon and children lined the sidewalk to pay 75 cents for a movie and a bag of popcorn.

Almost half a century later, Evanston Theaters is a dank and musty place filled with cobwebs and torn movie screens. High-rise condominiums threaten to replace the theater’s high ceilings and plush curtains.

SAN CLEMENTE, CA — PLEASE HELP! To all friends of Historic Theaters… the San Clemente Historical Society needs your immediate help in whatever capacity you are willing to help save the iconic Miramar Theater at 1700 N. El Camino Real from the wrecking ball of irresponsible development and special interests disguised under that misused and maligned word “Progress” !

To help with the Society’s stated position and on going efforts to stress the adaptive reuse of the Miramar Theater circa 1938 ( when it was opened ) please sign and have all your friends and family members sign the Petition to Save the Miramar Theater ASAP!

MIDDLESBROUGH, ENGLAND — Part of Middlesbrough Town Centre was closed today, when part of the former Odeon Cinema collapsed during demolition works.

The collapse also took away scaffolding that had been erected on the Fry Street side of the auditorium. It is believed the wall gave way whilst work to remove the auditorium roof was being carried out.

It appears that the demolition was being done from within using large bulldozers to remove the ceiling. luckily, no-one was injured, although some cars parked in Fry Street are believed to been damaged.

The roads are expected to remain closed until Wednesday Evening to allow emergency demolition work on the remainder of the auditorium and removal of the scaffolding.

An investigation is underway into a huge fire that caused the front of an old cinema building in Miles Platting to collapse.

Up to 30 firefighters tackled the blaze at the old Empress Building, Oldham Road.

The first crews from Manchester Central and Philips Park discovered the two-storey building well alight with flames shooting through the roof.

They immediately called for back up and were clear of the building when the front collapsed.

Debris was scattered across two lanes of Oldham Road, which was closed in the direction of Manchester to Oldham.

Note this Cinema was spotlisted as a grade 2 listed building a few years back and the authorities did nothing what-so-ever to secure this small piece of social history. Manchester City Council, Northwest film society, and English hertage all should hang their heads in shame.

So what’s new? Giving a building a listed status in the UK means nothing anymore.

I used to work there and have some great memories of that place seeing movies there over the years since I was a kid until they closed in 2003. It’s a shame to it wasn’t very old and I always passed it while riving down the LIE.

PASSAIC, NJ — NJ Schools Construction Corporation runs out of money for demolition of the Montauk Theater and the Hotel Passaic which are in the school zone of a new elementary school. City concerned that parents will refuse to send their children to the new school if buildings remain open and operating, the Montauk is now run as an adult theater.

“Demolition of the former Leeds Cannon triple is now underway, as the picture taken yesterday (Wednesday 1st February) shows.

The cinema opened as the Ritz in November 1934, designed by the ABC house architect W. R. Glen with 1,950 seats. It was renamed ABC in 1959 and closed in 1969 for an expensive twinning with the circle extended forward. ABC2, in the former stalls, closed in 1974 to be split in two giving a three screen cinema with Screen 1 670 seats, screen 2 474 seats and screen 3 236 seats.

All three closed in 2000 and have been unused since. The cinema was aslso called MGM towards the end."